A New Winner, and a Lost Week

Sometimes the weekends come on way too fast. I'm not ready for mine. Well, in some ways I am..the house is clean, I've run my errands, I've got projects to work on. It's just that mentally I'm still stuck on Thursday, strange as it seems (maybe it's the combo strawberry daquiris/pinot grigios talking--I'm going to be paying for this mix tomorrow morning, aren't I?)

At any rate, after a bone scan and a mammogram (pat me on the back), I came home and finished up some work projetcts, then I finished cleaning and prepped for the hubs' poker game tonight. After which, I went to the neighborhood ladies-only, drunken revelry we like to call Bunko (we don't actually play, we stopped that years ago when we realized it just interferred with our ability to eat, drink, and snipe on the neighbors who don't attend...plus..no prize payouts meant.more money for alcohol). It was a modest, healthy (heavy on the fruits and veggies) spread tonight, with strawberry daquiris, and a masseuse--yep, you heard me right, a masseuse.

This was a novelty. She didn't come cheap, it was $1 a minute, and I came with empty pockets, and only an hour to party, but her chair was always full, so most of the other guests enjoyed her services. Me, I had to scurry back up the street, like Cinderella after midnight, daquiri in a go cup, to feed the poker players at my house.

I call these 'taco bites'. That platter was loaded around the edges when it hit the counter. I oil up wonton dough, press it into a cupcake pan, bake it until crisp and then fill it with various things. Tonight's theme  was taco. And it's topped with Creme Fraise that has had some chipotle pepper powder whisked in. Creme Fraise is my new favorite substitute for sour cream, which will be short-lived as it costs 3 times what sour cream does and can only be found at Whole Foods. Earlier in the week I mixed it with wasabi powder and used it on fish tacos. Yum!

They've been scooping up the wings. I've never made wings before this week. These are marinated in pineapple juice, soy sauce, marsala wine and more, which then becomes the dipping sauce (after you've boiled it to kill any chicken germs--wouldn't want your guests to contract bird flu now, would we?) They're baked, so they're healthy, and a little sprinkling of fresh cilantro adds a nice little zest. This is 3 pounds of wings 5 minutes after being put out.

I stood around for a minute, fussing over everything, refilling nut and chip bowls, and only 1 of 8 guys even tried the food. Of course, the minute I left, they all dove in. Must be awkward with the Missus hanging around, though listening to the kind of poker they're playing (night baseball, high low), it may as well be ladies night. (I'm thinking about starting up a neighborhood ladies poker night but I'm afraid we'd have to play more studly poker games like Texas Hold 'Em.). I'm considering going down and asking them what they thought of the Real Housewives of NY 3-part reunion show (isn't Bethany the bitch!), except the hubs would kill me, especially if one or more of his friends jumped into that convo--AWK-ward!

Okay, back to business.....Ellen never contacted me about winning the die cut butterflies or the scissor bling, so that left 3 ladies to seleect a new winner from...Morgan, Michele and Gill. So I yelled down to the hubs 'pick a number between 1 and 3' to which he repllied 'what's with the loaded question? there's only one number between 1 and 3, and that's 2!', so CONGRATULATIONS MICHELE!!!!! Email me and let me know if you'd like an envelope full of Accuquilt die cut butterflies, or a scissor bling.

Sorry if I've bored you tonight with the cooking crap. Tomorrow we sew...onward and upward!!!! For now, we venture back downstairs to testosterone (albeit weak 10s, 2s and 4s are wild testosterone) land to refill our wineglass.

It's 11:15, do you know where your Pinot Grigio is?